[1]    During this period, Goodrich undoubtedly received the following letter from his sister Sarah:

February 7, 1865   Owego [New York]  

Dear Brother Ralph. I have but a few minutes to spare & can write but a few lines. Stephen sends you a check of one hundred dollars on the Tioga bank in a letter which we will mail this afternoon with this. They told him that was the safest way to send it. I hope you will get it all right. I hope your circumstances will improve in the spring. It seems to me that you could do better here at the North, and your health better. I believe you have been worse than you let us know. If those people that you lent to will not pay, can’t they be turned out? Do you have the rheumatism now? What has made your hair come out? Write us more particulars about yourself. Does Lucy Stratton’s friend live there in Little Rock?  

[Augusta’s son] John goes to school [here in Owego] and makes great improvement in reading. The teacher – a Mr. Holdridge from Spencer – is going to have an exebition at the close of the school. John speaks the piece, “You _____ expect one of my age.”  [His little brother] Willie has learned nearly the whole of it & says it is very funny indeed. Willie has been sick nearly all winter, but is better so that he walks around now.  [Stephen’s horse] Prince is sick or lame, so that Steve cannot use him. I hope you can do better than to go farther south in the spring. Write as soon as you receive this for we shall be anxious to hear. All send love. Write as often as you can. Ever your affectionate sister, -- Sarah [Goodrich]  

In response to Sarah’s letter, Goodrich wrote his mother the following:

February 1865      Little Rock, Arkansas

My dear mother & all.  I received the letter from Sarah saying that Steve would send a check by the same mail several days before I received the latter. I am very much obliged for it but I don’t know when I will be able to repay it. Sarah asks me some questions which I have never thought proper to write before. I have been very sick, but with nothing worse than chills & fever. I am over with that now I think, but I am weak. The doctor tells me I have the heart disease. I have had a bad cold & cough for several months and I am glad I have given up school teaching. But you need not be alarmed about me now. I believe I am getting sound & well again. The falling out of my hair was only the result of fever. I had it cut short off to my head & shaved my face clean, & now I look just like a baby. You said you would write a receipt for my hair. I wish you would in your next.  

I have visited Lucy Stratton’s friend several times and I find her a very agreeable and intelligent young lady. She told me that her hair had begun to fall out since she came here. Her husband has been in Little Rock nearly a year & he has got nearly bald. There is no bank here and I do not know what to do with the Draft unless I sell it at a discount to some Commission merchant who does business in New York City. I was trying yesterday to see what I could do with it. If I cannot dispose of it, I should be obliged to send it back to you. The Adams Express company must certainly have an agent in Owego. Chatfield used to be the agent & you sent butter to New York City. That express company is good enough & anything sent by Adams Express would come safe enough. You could send anything with safety to me that way.  

I have no clothes. The pants & coat you sent me before the war from Platt I still wear as a Sunday suit, but rather thread bear. If we could have kept on last summer doing the same business that we did, I would have two or three thousand dollars by this time. Some men have made fortunes here since the army came and others have lost their all. If the army is paid off soon, or before it leaves this post, we would do good business. But as it is, we do not pay expenses & are running in debt every day. There is a good deal owing to us & when the soldiers get money, we will then have some. I eat but two meals a day & sometimes but one. [Remainder of letter missing]